Dungeons & Dragons... & X-Men?
by Hemlock
Summary: Bobby buys a new D&D and finds it too advanced for even his liking. ===>> NEW CHAPTER!! (finally)
1. Something's Coming Over

**1.  
**  
  
  
Bobby tore up the package. "Cool," he muttered to himself, eyes shining like summer sky.  
  
"What have you got there?" Jubilee asked from behind his shoulders.   
  
Bobby immediately turned around, his face red and flushing. "Ah… uh… nothing." He hid it at his back, which did a bad job hiding whatever he had there.  
  
Jubilee screwed her eyes in confusion, then her eyebrows rose in mock comprehension. "I see. One of your Playboy back issues bundle orders." She stared at him and turned quickly on her feet away from him. "I'm telling the Professor."  
  
Bobby thought quickly, then it came to him. Seconds later Jubilee's screams rang throughout the mansion. "HELP!! Bobby's frozen my FEET!"  
  
  
Actually it was nothing of importance, but what would the rest of the X-Men say when one of its members still had this uncanny love of Dungeons and Dragons? Bobby never missed any of its early editions, but of late he found himself getting more and more left behind with all the crazy mutants trying to take over the world. They would do as much damage as Pinky and the Brain would for all he cared.   
  
What mattered now was that the latest edition was in his hands, and, alone in his room, he was going through the rules, the set and all with adept attention.  
  
_**BLAM**_!  
  
Bobby sat on his bed as Hank, Jubilee, Logan, Scott, Ororo, Jean and Ray burst into his bedroom. He stared at them indignantly. "What in the hell are you doing?"  
  
"Jubes here said you had back issues of Playboy magazine," Logan said sternly. His eyes, though, betrayed his real feelings: they glowed hungrily at the word 'Playboy'. "Where is it?"  
  
"Serious offence, young man," Scott said, the same hunger shone in his eyes. "What issue did you order?"  
  
Jean stared at him in disbelief. "I don't suppose you want to know who was on the covers, do you now?"  
  
Ray meanwhile stood on his toes to see what Bobby had behind him. "Cool, man! I never thought you would buy those mags!"  
  
Ororo threw him a disgusted stare that said 'men, pigs all of them'.   
  
Bobby stared at Jubilee. Hard. "I guess this is your doing, isn't it?" The latter stuck out her tongue. "Well, boys and girls, have a look at my back issue mags if you must," he said as he moved aside. Logan and Scott were the first to jump onto the bed while the rest looked on. Afterwards they sat up on the bed with anger colouring their faces.  
  
"That's no mag, that's a damned game!" Logan disappointedly tossed the box cover.  
  
The rest exhaled in relief, but the men were clearly disappointed. "No thanks to you, Jubes," Scott said, staring angrily at her who shuffled her feet on the floor and staring anywhere but at them.  
  
"Satisfied? All right then, now leave me alone."  
  
Hank was the only one who was left. "Hey, Bobby," he began.  
  
"What?"  
  
He looked outside for a moment; they had all gone down. Then he looked at Bobby and at the game, its new glossy cover a siren's call. "Can we play that game now?'  
  
  
"… you are walking in the woods, the lane pleasant, the view wonderful. Suddenly three orcs sprang out of the bushes! They stare at you as if you were their dinner!"  
  
Hank's eyes shone as he stared at a long list before him. "All right, here we go. I choose to cast Burning Hands!"  
  
"On which one?" Bobby asked, taking his pencil.  
  
"Burning Hands affects all, right?"  
  
"Not if you could somehow manage to squeeze the orcs together you can."  
  
"But you said I was in a lane, of course the three orcs are squeezed together!"  
  
"Let's see what the dice tell."  
  
Bobby rolled the dice, and fortunately for Hank the orcs had low hit points. "YEAH! I cast Burning Hands on you! Take that you good-for-nothing orcs!"  
  
Hank's delighted scream floated to the hall below where Warren was reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Then another scream. Then another laugh. Then another scream. Then -   
  
"Goddammit! Can't I have a moment's peace here!?" Warren shouted at the top of his lungs. The sounds perished instantly. "Thank you!" he muttered as he sat down and picked up where he had just left.  
  
He could hear chuckles, but that was not as irritating as the continuous girlish giggles and screams he had just experienced. Ayn Rand needs deep concentration, and so he wished for right now. If he could have it, he would finish the book by today -   
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"  
  
That's it, Warren thought. That's the end of those two insufferable fools! That's the last time they'd every scream. Or speak for that matter. Because he, Warren Worthington III is going to take the two by the throats, squeeze'em until they could only wheeze then snap each neck in a dainty fashion so that nobody would hear them and them cram their sorry bodies into a chimney just like what happened in _ Murders in the Rue Morgue_ or even better, cement up their bodies underground! Or why not just grind them up? They'd both go to hell -   
  
These thoughts were in Warren's head, flying around his head like bluebottle flies, ugly and repelling yet very, _ very_ compelling at the same time, as he flew furiously upwards and then towards the door of Bobby's bedroom. As he hovered before it he kicked it wide open and entered with air of a wrathful angel, his face dark with anger.  
  
But then the anger faded.   
  
Because there was nobody inside the room.  
  
  
"Maybe they are playing tricks," Jubilee said, ever the sceptical. "You cannot believe what the two did the other day to Ms Frost. They put a mini camera in her room and then broadcasted it all over the mansion."  
  
Emma showed no emotion even as the rest of them mumbled behind her how brazen she had been even though the broadcast had been _ very_ revealing. In more ways than one.  
  
"They can't scream like hell and then just vanished," Scott said.   
  
"You got the hell part right," Warren said. He wouldn't be able to finish the book by this evening; he knew it by the way things turning out so far. "But seriously, I did hope that they would go to hell."  
  
"You got your wish, then," Logan said nonchalantly. "Maybe they went out to buy something or whatever."  
  
"Hey, where's Kurt?" Ororo asked.   
  
"You think he did this?" Ray asked her back.  
  
"Could be," Ororo replied. "He could have done that for fun, too, or just for the heck of it."  
  
"Impossible," Jean said. "He's been sleeping. I saw to that. Gave him some sleeping pills just now. He felt quite tired after last night's vigil."  
  
"Oh, right," mumbled Jubilee. "His new year resolution. Pray each night."  
  
"So, what do we do now?" Remy asked.  
  
Scott looked around as he sensed all eyes were on him. "We'll wait," he said after a long hesitant pause. "We'll wait."  


_Will you wait? Then please review! _


	2. This Used to Be My Playground

**2.**  
  
  
"This is absolutely crazy."  
  
Hank stared at the dice in his hands, then threw it upon the forest floor. The dice disappeared after Hank noted the dots on it. "Eight. I'm walking way too far ahead of you, Bobby. We have to be careful." Hank started to walk.  
  
Bobby took out a list from beneath his tunic. "It's okay. I think I have Glide spell to help me. I'll cast it on me and then I'll have an extra turn at the dice." As he spoke he took out a scroll and cracked open its seal. Something whispered around his ankles and he watched as the dice in his hand disappeared. Then another set of dice appeared. He threw it onto the ground. "Ten! Now we're closer."  
  
Bobby followed Hank as they inched closer and closer to each other. They were in a forest, the forest where they had just played the game. It was distressing; they had to throw for the amount of moves they had to do every time. Even stranger was the fact that some unseen barrier would prevent them from running away.   
  
"Now I know how does a puppet feel," Hank muttered as they both came to a stop. "Did you have any idea how we ended up in the game instead of playing it?"  
  
"I told you I don't know!" Bobby replied as dice appeared in his palm. "What I know is we have to play to get out of here."  
  
"Where did you order this, anyway?"  
  
"The usual place!"  
  
"Not somewhere shady or strange?"  
  
"Roll your dice; it'll disappear if you don't," Bobby reminded him. Hank fumbled with the dice and rolled out five. They both walked several steps more forward, coming closer to a fork of a road ahead. They could see nothing but more trees lumbering in the background.  
  
"So far nothing has happened." Hank moved his head side to side until it produced a cracking sound. "Ah, God. That's a relief."  
  
"Do you think this is real?" Bobby asked. "I mean, of course they look real, but is it possible we are really in the game or are we just dreaming?"  
  
"I think not." Hank's voice suddenly became hushed and Bobby gave him a questioning glare. Instead of answering Hank nodded to the fork.  
  
There stood three of the most ugliest creatures both of them had ever seen, short and still. "Orcs," Bobby whispered. But they seemed to be two-dimensional. "Am I seeing things or are those orcs made of paper?"  
  
Hank squinted, trying to move a bit closer but the invisible barrier was resilient. That was enough, though. "Curious. But you are right, my friend," Hank went on as he took out his axe and shield. "They are made of paper."  
  
A loud crack, whip-like but sharper, sounded above them. They both looked and saw the air above them was shimmering and alive with energy. Darkness spiralled from its centre and began forming shapes, unclear at first.  
  
"Oh, no." Bobby took out his staff. "Now what?"  
  
  
Ray was the first who noticed it. He called out to Logan who happened to pass outside.   
  
"The hell are you talking about?"   
  
"I'm talking about the game board! It has shining words on it!"  
  
"Oh really? And I'm wearing mascara today. Do you like it, Ray?" Logan fluttered his eyes girlishly and walked away.  
  
Ray stared angrily at the short man. Then he returned to the game board. It was normal. But he did see something shone atop the game board.   
  
"Humph. Maybe it was my energy sparks," Ray muttered. His mutation - wave-absorbing abilities - probably had something to do with it. Something caught his eye and he reached out his hand to grab it. When it passed the game board Ray sensed something that made his hands break out in goose bumps. He pulled away quickly. Then he noticed he had something in his hand. He opened his palm and there lay a grim figure of a wizard clad in long cloth and holding a long staff.

"Neat." He admired the figure for a while, then placed the piece upon the game board.  
  
  
"That wasn't bad."   
  
Hank ran the back of his hand on his forehead, smearing away the dark green liquid that was orc's blood. "Yeah. I think I'm getting quite efficient with these." He lifted up the axe and the shield, still green from the blood.  
  
"So, we have to read the words before we move forward," Bobby said, checking his staff for any cracks. None. The staff was quite light but unexpectedly tough. "Do you think if we didn't read it we could have passed around them anyway?"  
  
Hank shook his head. "Most unlikely. We'd be stuck there forever if we didn't read it at the first time. I guess we have no choice but to go with the flow. And besides," Hank rose and walked about their rest area (it appeared soon after they had defeated the orcs), "so far things are going great."  
  
"Yep," Bobby agreed. "It's much better than the paper-pencil version."  
  
"But I still wonder how did we become the game itself. Is this part of the game? Is the latest edition supposed to work like this? If it doesn't, then what happened, really?"  
  
Bobby could only shrugged. "Tell you the truth, I don't even finish the guide in the game."  
  
"Whatever," Hank imitated his shrug. "I say let's get on with this. This seems fun enough. How many gold you get from that orc?"  
  
"There's no gold, only some robe and a healing potion."  
  
"I got myself a nice orc-skin armour," Hank said, lifting up his loot. "And a few gold coins."  
  
Bobby's eyes went wide. "Lemme see! Lemme see!"  
  
Just as Hank was about to open his pouch there was a bright light coming from where the road forked into two. Several frightening but familiar screams were heard and a nice, loud boom ended whatever that was.  
  
The two stared at each other. "Who could that be?" Hank asked. Bobby shook his head as sounds of footsteps became nearer and nearer to where they rested.   


_Who could that be? Wait and see!_


	3. Don't Cry For Me (Argentina)

**3.  
**  
  
This was the third time Warren was interrupted from his reading in one day. "WHAT? **WHAT**!?"  
  
"Is Ray with you inside?" Jubilee asked from behind the bathroom door where Warren had been sitting, trying to avoid all the noise in the mansion. "We can't find him anywhere."  
  
Warren rolled his eyes. "Well, if you can find him here that would be damned bloody _ queer_ now, don't you think so?"  
  
Jubilee made a sound as if an irritated donkey would. "Just tell me, have you seen him?"  
  
"God, NO! I've been in the bathroom since an hour ago!"  
  
"All right, all right!" Jubilee voice faded away, mumbling curses most likely. Warren shook his head as he reread the novel and tried to sit comfortably in the bath tub.  
  
  
"You - look - funny, Ray."  
  
Hank and Bobby laughed aloud. Ray did indeed look funny. He had a tall pointed hat on, a gnarled staff in his hand, a voluminous robe that seemed to shine under the sun, and beneath it all, Reebok shoes peeked out.   
  
But what did it was the fact that he had beard. _ White_ beard, in fact, that flowed down to his chest. He seemed to be unconscious of that, though, because right now he was too confused to notice.  
  
"Tell me! Where the hell am I? I found myself staring at the most frightening creature in my life! It had green skin and a snout for nose instead, bald, eyes that burn and teeth yellower than dirt!"  
  
"Calm down," Hank said, pulling him to sit down but Ray seemed to have been stuck to the ground. Bobby pointed to the air between them.  
  
"Oh no. Those damned scripts again."  
  
"Bobby, it's your script," Hank said as he sat down.  
  
"Oh well." Bobby stood up. "Here we go. 'Don't be frightened, old man. This is the Woods, after all. You can rest here with us, recover your strength or you may join us if you like. We are on a quest.' God I sound like some stupid kid reading."  
  
"You sound corny if that's what you mean," Hank whispered. "Oh, my script. 'Yes, old man. You are invited to join us here. We have food and water.' Eh? Do we?" Hank looked around and sure enough, there were flasks of water and something roasting on a spit. It smelled good.  
  
Ray meanwhile read his own script. "Thank you for your kindness. I will join you all." Only then he started to move and with that he stumbled forward. Bobby caught him just in time.   
  
"Really, Bobby," Ray remarked later on as they sat around the fire. "Whatever have you gotten us into this time."  
  
Bobby feigned a hurt expression. "Please. I am not solely responsible. I only bought this game. I did nothing else."  
  
Ray slapped Bobby's forehead. "Next time read the fine print."   
  
"There are too many fine prints, stupid."  
  
"What should we do next?" Hank was sharpening his blade with a flint he found along the area. "Go and rescue a princess?"  
  
"Wouldn't that be cool," Ray chimed in.   
  
"I don't remember a princess mentioned in the guide," Bobby said. "Only a - "  
  
There was a loud rumble underneath them and the ground shook for a moment. Next a bright light shone from above them before breaking out in a rainbow all around.  
  
"Hallelujah," Hank said to himself.  
  
"Not precisely, Hank," Bobby muttered. "It's time for us to walk again. The resting period has expired, and that is supposed to show us wonderful adventures waiting for us along the journey." He nodded toward the light that had faded.  
  
"Oh. Wonderful. How quaint." Ray shook his head.  
  
Hank turned to Ray, smiling. "Monosyllabic becomes you, Ray." He grabbed hold of Ray's beard and tugged at it. "Nice beard, anyway."  
  
The latter yowled; it actually hurt! "Hank! I'll shave you clean when we get out!"  
  
  
They knew something was making them walk, like a bunch of chess pieces handled by invisible hands and left to fend themselves whenever danger presented itself in the many forms: orcs (the weakest), dark elves, goblins, caterpillars that spit out corrosive liquid, crows that would peck out your eyes if you weren't careful, and something Bobby recognised as Tyudans and a Tyudan Sergeant, a bunch of winged menaces that shoot out petrify rays of their eyes. Plus, they fly higher than most, which makes them tough to kill.  
  
But nothing a bit of Burning Hands spell wouldn't kill. "I'm getting good as this!" he exclaimed as he kept his hands aloft so that the spell wouldn't be interrupted.  
  
Hank was busy cutting down the wings of the Tyudans; he could do so now that Ray had cast Minor Invisibility over him. As long as he kept his distance he could clip off their wings and kill them without any much incident. "Hey, that one has a Halberd +1 on it! Shoot it Ray! Shoot it!"  
  
Without much ado Ray cracked open a seal that contained Magic Missiles. Red balls of light began to gather around his outstretched fingers and he lifted them up carefully. Then: "Go to hell you no-good-Tyudans!!" he released the burgeoning balls of energy.  
  
Two, three times, the spell hit the Tyudan Sergeant. Hank saw its flap of wings weaken and wasted no time throwing an axe at the flying creature, which in return lifted off his invisible cover.  
  
However, in its last breath the Sergeant summoned the last bit of its energy and caught Hank unprepared as it shot out petrify rays to him.  
  
"Hank, look out!"   
  
Ray looked on, speechless as Hank slowly froze before him and simultaneously the creature fell down with a harsh twisted cry and a soft thud on the ground. "Oh no, Hank, no…"  
  
Bobby dropped the loot he was checking and ran to Hank's frozen form. "Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit." He looked at Ray whose face was wrinkled with fear. "Now what do we do?"  
  
"Do you have a Stone to Skin scroll or spell with you?" Ray asked him.  
  
"I'm a necromancer, Ray, not a monk! You're a wizard, a sorcerer, you must have better spells than I do!"  
  
"I don't! It's a high-level spell!" Ray furiously scratched his head in anger.   
  
Bobby was close to tears by now. "Oh my God. Now what do we do? If we don't cure him in one hour's time he'd crumble to dust!"  
  
Ray watched him closely. "Are you sure you're not exaggerating things, Bobby? You reputation precedes you, you know, of being the best exaggerator of all times."  
  
Bobby looked up from between his shoulders. "You think I'm kidding? That spell is for real, Ray, and if we don't get help soon he'd die."  
  
Something in his voice made Ray sit down dumbfounded. Now, really, _ what_ could they do? 

_Now what could they do? Any suggestions?_


	4. Like A Prayer

**4.**  
  
  
"If this is a joke, then I don't get it at all," Jubilee muttered to herself. Ororo and her were walking down a hallway after an hour had passed and they were still at the same spot where they first began.  
  
Ororo twisted the matter around in her head, looked it this way and that, manipulated it and stretched it to its limit, and yet she found nothing. Three persons disappeared in one day within the closest of periods. "It's most frustrating," she said almost to herself.  
  
"And now everyone seemed pretty convinced that they went out to have some fun. Hank? Have fun? That sounds so un-Hank."  
  
"You're ruining the basics of English grammar, Jubilee," Ororo remarked.  
  
"Who cares? I'm not in the UK."  
  
  
Scott was still unconvinced. He checked the trash bins, letters and parcels that came today, telephone bills for the last three months, transactions made under the name of Rex Havresciel (anagram of Charles Xavier's name for credit cards and financial businesses), and still there was no trace.  
  
"No trace of what?" asked a voice behind him as he crouched beside Bobby's bed, searching for something. He came up, blushing but with true spirit of a leader he faced his wife's suspicious face.  
  
"No trace of _what_?" Jean asked again, a hint of anger creeping inside her voice. Like any guilty husband Scott's façade crumbled. Rapidly. And tried in an instant to come up with a possible explanation as to his previous act.  
  
"Of that darned mouse," Scott said slowly.  
  
"Come again?"   
  
"Of that mouse! Yes! That darned mouse came into the kitchen and ate half of the blue cheese I bought yesterday. I chased it to here and seems like I lost the trail."  
  
"Which blue cheese? The one we bought from the store last night?" Jean suggested. Her expression changed to one of pure concern.  
  
_Women are so easy_, Scott thought with a secret smile in the back of his mind, then caught himself doing so. What dangerous thing to do, he reprimanded himself. But Jean seemed to take no notice of it. "Yes! That one! I was going to have that for a snack."  
  
"Oh damn!" Jean swore softly. "First those three boys, and now a chunk of cheese." She turned around angrily and left the room. "What would happen next? Flying pigs?"  
  
Scott watched her disappear down the stairs and re-enter the room. He resumed his search. This time he began at the other side of the bed. As for one of the bed side was against the wall Scott pulled it away from the wall to reveal a rather tidy and clean area underneath the bed. It was packed with earlier editions of Dungeons & Dragons and they all looked almost new. Scott jumped over the bed to get to the other side now revealed to him.   
  
"AH!! God damned it!"  
  
Even his curse was grammatically correct. Scott looked down to the sole of his right foot. It had begun to redden at an area close to the big toe. What caused it?  
  
Then he saw something glinted amongst the immaculate-looking boxes.   
  
  
"We cannot stay here. We have to move on."  
  
Bobby looked sadly at Hank's frozen form. "But he'll die! We can't just leave him here!"  
  
"Well, what can you do about it?" Ray angrily asked. "We're wasting time here, and that script has been waiting for us to activate it an hour ago. Which proved your words wrong: Petrify does not turn its victim to dust in an hour."  
  
It was Bobby's turn to get angry. "You don't see it, do you?" He stood up and pointed at the dark spiralling shapes above them. "It could be anything! It could be the very thing which activates the spell itself! It could be another damned monster waiting to kill us! It could be ANYTHING!"  
  
"Bobby!" Ray shouted at the top of his lungs. That effectively shut him up. "Cool it, okay? If you say so, then I won't. But still there is no point of waiting. We get nothing if we don't get moving." Bobby's eyes turned to Hank's frozen form. "You hear me? We can't stay here."  
  
Without waiting further Ray walked toward the script and waved his hand before it, a sign he agreed to speak. The words sharpened immediately.  
  
" 'There is one great priest here, in the Woods, who will aid us. Despair not, my friend; he will be in safe hands. I will see to it. Now, as I see it, we have two choices. Either me going to see the priest myself or it will be you who do that.' "  
  
Bobby slowly stood up. Above him the same black shapes appeared. They no longer held wonder to him, only fear and loathing. Ray waited, crossing his finger behind him.  
  
He waved his hand and the words sharpened. After some considerations he nodded and spoke: " 'Someone will have to look after him.' " Bobby stared at Ray right in the eye. " 'I will go.' "  
  
The surprise in Ray's voice was sincere. " 'Are you sure?' "  
  
" ' Yes. Now please tell me where he is before I change my mind.' " As if an afterthought he added: "Now that's the most natural script I've ever read."  
  
  
Bobby made his journey into the deeper part of the Woods. Each of them had this map which showed the whole area, pretty much like the game board itself. The previous destination had been marked with a massive red 'X' and now his current destination was south of the red mark. A blue dot marked the spot exactly.  
  
While he muttered to himself there was a loud cry; painful, in fact, and very human.   
  
"Now who got sucked into the game?"  
  
The cry got louder as he walked on. The sound of battle was unmistakable, and suddenly before Bobby the familiar black shapes hovered. Yes, he wanted to see what is happening. Yes, he wanted to help the old man who is being attacked by a bunch of orcs. No he doesn't need any reward. "Just let me help him!!" Bobby screamed at last. The invisible barrier disappeared.  
  
After positioning himself strategically behind the oblivious orcs Bobby took out a quarterstaff +3 and silently approached them. When he got close enough he knocked off the head orc, then its weaker companions. Wasting no time he took out a short sword and cut off their heads.  
  
"Bobby?" said a shaky voice.  
  
The latter looked around. There, sitting on the ground, face whiter than sheets, in a priest's garment, was Scott. Sans the visor.  
  
The pun was more than obvious for the clown inside Bobby. Instead of answering him he doubled over and laughed as loud as he could.  
  
  
"I don't believe men anymore," Jean remarked as she sat down, a cup of steaming chamomile tea in her hand. Outside was cloudy with allusions to heavy rain. She had just told them how she caught Scott searching.  
  
"Never always have," Ororo said, reaching out for a cookie Jim had baked. "No offence, Jim." Jim waved a never-mind to them. "I always regard them as a secondary element in my life, if not lower."  
  
"You can't leave them for a moment."  
  
Nods.  
  
"If you do they'd ogle over someone or something else."  
  
More nods. More cookies entered through luscious lips.  
  
"I don't care about something else. What I ** do** care is that someone else bit." This was Emma.  
  
"What do you mean?" Rogue was lounging on the countertop exchanging playful winks with Jim who tolerated everything from her.  
  
"Well, it's bad enough if your man's ogling over a woman. What if he was ogling over a **man**?"  
  
Jean choked on her tea, spurting it all over the table while Jubilee's eyes widened conspiratorially. Rogue meanwhile had fallen off the countertop and was being helped up by Jim.   
  
"God, Emma! Do you have to be that blunt!?" Rogue asked afterwards.  
  
"Well, at least I'm being transparent!"  
  
"You always are," Jean muttered.  
  
"What?!"  
  
"Of course you are! And I agree absolutely with you," Jean quickly glanced at Betsy who was silent from the beginning. "Don't you, Betsy dear?"  
  
She did not reply. "Betsy?" Jean reached out to touch her hand and she shivered once. "Hey, what's the matter with you?"  
  
Betsy looked around uncertainly. "I… uh, was thinking."  
  
"Yeah? About what?"  
  
"Warren."  
  
"What about him?" Jubilee asked.  
  
"He's been avoiding me since the last three weeks." When shocked glances were exchanged she went on. "There were phone calls on his cellphone from numbers I never heard of. Each time I answered it a male voice was at the other end asking for _Warrie_. When I asked who it was he would immediately hang up."  
  
"_Warrie_?" Jubilee screwed her eyes and face, looking more Asian. "Isn't that the gayest thing I've ever heard."  
  
Three hands slapped the back of her head simultaneously, resulting in her falling off the chair.   
  
"I was about to dismiss it all," Betsy went on as Jubilee crawled up back to her chair massaging the back of her head and groaning, "when last night I heard himself talking."  
  
"What did they talk about?" Jean asked. The others waited expectantly as Betsy swallowed audibly her tea.

_What did they talk about? Stick around to know!_  



	5. Back in Business

**5**.  
  
  
"This is somewhat better than my expectations," Scott was speaking enthusiastically as the two walked. "You know I never played this game before. I thought it was blasphemous!"  
  
_Oh, Scotty boy. The fun you've missed. You really fit the bill_. But Bobby did not say it aloud; he merely smiled sympathetically at him. "Glad this changes your mind."  
  
Scott suddenly became distant. "Oh. No… it's just that, while you're in it, take everything it has to offer, right?"  
  
Bobby nodded knowingly. "Here we go. Soon we'll meet up with Ray and Hank."  
  
  
"Now, do I have that spell? No? I'll just look inside my backpack, then. You guys have to wait. Hmmm… I'm sure it was here the last time I checked. All right, let me take out everything…"  
  
Scott poured everything out of his bag. There were a lot of scrolls and a thick book of spells. Ray joined in the search. "Here it is!" he said finally. Giving the scroll to Scott he added, "You're the only one who has enough intelligence to break the scroll."  
  
"Oh, well, great!" Scott weighed the scroll in his hand thoughtfully.   
  
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Bobby impatiently asked.  
  
Scott stared guiltily at the scroll. "How does one break a scroll?"  
  
  
Jean, Emma, Jubilee, Rogue and Jim sat in scandalous silent and horror. Thunder rolled twice and lightning flashed now and then outside.   
  
"I'll go and switch on the lights," Jim said, breaking the silence.  
  
Jean, still in great disbelief, slowly spoke. "I can't believe this. I can't believe what you've said is true!"  
  
Jubilee shook her head. "There is always a snake in a heaven."  
  
"But.. Warren! He's so… so **manly**!" Rogue protested. "It's impossible!"  
  
"That's what they go for, sweetheart," Emma said coldly. "Manly, big muscles and all that. Warren fits the bill to a Q."  
  
Betsy was almost in tears. "I cannot believe my ears at first, either. But it was so clear! I… I'm not sure anymore…"  
  
Jim watched with a solemn, fatherly heart as she began to break down and cry. Faithfully he went to the shelf, took out a cocoa powder and started to make some hot cocoa.  
  
  
Used scrolls lay silently before them. Ray watched another fall onto the ground as another unsuccessful spell was cast, or **un-cast** in Scott's case.  
  
"Scott, you have to do - NOTHING! Just break the seal and then let the spell be!"  
  
"But I can't! I have to know what will happen!"  
  
Bobby sighed. "Don't think! Don't think about anything! Don't expect anything! Just break the scroll and wait!"  
  
"Have you ever stirred your coffee without thinking that you are increasing the entropy of the universe?" Scott asked angrily back.  
  
"Entropy my ass," Ray muttered under his breath and stood up. "Scott, I want to say something."  
  
The two stopped arguing at the tone of his voice.  
  
"I suppose you even think when you pee, don't you, Scott? Or even when you are defecating?" Scott's face turned red, but he said nothing.  
  
"Oh shit! You do!" Bobby said in disbelief.  
  
"Shut up, ice balls," Scott retorted, his face beet red.  
  
"There are times you do think before you act, but now is not the time." Ray glanced at Hank's frozen form. "This is the time not to think before doing. This is the time to take chances without thinking of the consequences."  
  
Scott stared at his feet for a moment. Then to the surprise of them both he cracked open the seal, and a column of comforting green light shot upward before coming down on Hank. Slowly the light seemed to peel away the stony surface of Hank's form.   
  
A moment later Hank, drowsy and slightly disorientated, stood there as if merely a second had passed. He looked about and smiled when he saw the two, but his brows shot up in surprise when he saw Scott.  
  
"Stars and garters, it's Scott Summers! What are you doing here?!"  
  
"Becoming a priest," Scott said stiffly.  
  
Hank laughed aloud. "Oh. You don't have to _become_. You ** are** a priest." With that Bobby and he laughed aloud together.  
  
While the two laughed until tears formed in their eyes Ray leant over to Scott. "Did my advice work that good?"  
  
It was Scott's turn to smile. "No. I ** thought** while I broke the seal."  
  
Ray's eyebrows rose. "Indeed. Of what?"  
  
Still with that cynical smile Scott replied with pleasure: "You are one _ son of a female dog_."  
  
  
Their journey, however, was still very long, yet they have no idea what waited for them. The four walked through thick forests, mossy grounds, lichen-covered fields, swamps of foul odour, hills of treacherous slopes and fought countless enemies. Added to their lists of random enemies were foul wizards, slayer orcs, wraiths, darklings, highwaymen,… the list went on that Bobby had three pages long of them.  
  
"It's roughly one day's journey now," Hank said as they rested for the day. Scott was resurrecting Ray who 'died' earlier that day after one intense battle with a team of highwaymen and a foul wizard as their leader. Ray's use of Daze did not affect them, and the highwaymen were immune to Sleep.   
  
"Stop talking, Hank. I'm trying to concentrate. Bobby, remember to cast Cure Poison on him when he appeared. He still has that poison from the highwaymen's dagger."  
  
Ray's body began to glow from inside as Scott pressed his finger against a symbol for Resurrection in his spell book while one hand touching Ray's head. Bobby meanwhile touched Ray's hand as he pressed the Cure Poison symbol in his book.  
  
When he opened his eyes there was light coming out of them, briefly, then it was gone. Ray sat up and Bobby cast Cure Poison quickly, fearing the poison still running in his vein would take effect as immediate as he had been resurrected. Fortunately the tell-tale sign - green light escaping from the outline of Ray's body - was there, and he need no longer to worry.  
  
"Hey," Hank asked as they rested later on, " welcome back to the living. How does it feel to be dead?"  
  
Ray threw a pebble at him; a Magic Stone, actually. It does only minor damage, but it was still painful. "Actually I felt like I was sleeping before these two interrupted my sleep. It was about the best sleep I ever had."  
  
Bobby shook his head. "The ungrateful Lazarus. We should have let him be," he said to Scott. The latter nodded.   
  
"How far are we from the big 'X' ?" Bobby asked.  
  
Hank told him. "We might be there before sunset tomorrow if there were no encounters along the way. By the way, what's out there? What's waiting for us there?"  
  
Bobby knew they waited for him to answer. But he could merely shrug and shake his head. "I don't know, guys," he said finally, apologetically. "I don't know."   
  
After a moment's silence passed Scott burst out. "Well, screw the big 'X'. I'm hungry." He lifted up a rat-like creature and skewered it on a stick. "Fancy something exotic?"  
  
The rest looked at him as if he had just risen from the dead.  
  
  
_So, what's waiting for them? Will Scott eat that _thing_? Do we even care?_


	6. Deeper and Deeper

_Author's note: I know, I'm getting slower. Truth is, it's exams season! Hope that explains it. Meanwhile, enjoy the story and keep the reviews coming in =_0)

**6.  
**  
  
  
The poor soul of a Warren meanwhile lay asleep in the bathtub, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged lay upon the floor. Somewhere in the background the sound of water dripping was audible.  
  
  
"I'd give you my Boots of Speed if you'd trade that Robe of Invisibility with me."  
  
"Oh no, I'm getting that robe, Bobby! Here, you can have my Krishna's Dagger! It inflicts ice, fire and piercing damage at the same time!"  
  
"I need that dagger, Scott!"  
  
"Ray, you can always this," Hank said, lifting up a short sword. "It's Matahari Short sword; lets you inflict Sunlight on vampires and vampirelings."  
  
"There are no vampires here, Hank," Ray said, rolling his eyes. "Besides, mages can't use short swords, only staves and daggers."  
  
"And slings, don't you forget," Bobby added as he checked the Boots of Speed Ray gave him. "Anyone have one of those?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Slings, of any kinds."  
  
"Here," Scott produced one from his backpack. "It's glowing blue; I don't know what is it and I can't use it."  
  
"You have to identify it first," Bobby said. "Don't you have an Identify spell?"  
  
Scott scratched his head. "I used it up to for that Krishna's Dagger. That's the last of it."  
  
"I think we all used up our spells for today," Ray said, checking his spell book. There were no symbols on the pages, and so it was on the others'.   
  
"Let's get some sleep, then," Scott said.  
  
"I'm sleeping in the middle!" Ray shouted.  
  
"No, I am!" Bobby shouted.   
  
"Does it make any differences, boys?" Hank asked pointedly as the two men fought on the ground for the spot.  
  
"Yes!" the two chorused. "If you sleep on the sides, if there's a monster coming, you'd be the first to wake up and fight them!" Bobby said, then punching Ray on the cheek.  
  
Hank and Scott looked at each other, then nodding, both grabbed Ray and Bobby at their feet, dragged them away from the spot while the two were screaming like hell and after deposited them as far as they could, leapt upon the sought-after spot and instantly went to sleep.  
  
"NO FAIR!!" the two shouted. "YOU CHEATED! CHEATERS!"  
  
But even Armageddon could not have gotten them awake. Bobby shook his head and laid himself on the side and slept off right away. Ray did the same at the other side.  
  
  
"Dammit! WAKE UP!!!"  
  
Hank opened his eyes a bit unwillingly. "What…? I had Miss California Beach 2001 on my lap…"  
  
"We're under attack!"  
  
That triggered something in Hank's head and made his drowsiness disappear. He stood up and saw Ray, Scott and Bobby were already in a circle formation around him. Around them were darkness, and Hank could see very little. No, wait… there seemed to be something moving around in the darkness… Hank stifled a cry.  
  
"Yup, Hank. They're vampires," Bobby said as he held up his Roster Staff, capable of inflicting damage to ghostly creatures.   
  
"Hope you have that Matahari Short Sword on. That will help a lot." Bobby was browsing through his spell book. "Does anyone have a Daylight or False Dawn spell?"  
  
"I think I do," Scott said, taking out his spell book. "But I can cast it out only twice."  
  
"So, we have to hit them first," Hank said as he rummaged through his backpack. He found the short sword. At the same time the five vampires began to attack. Ray almost got bitten by one but he managed to deflect it using his shield.  
  
Seeing the odds, they all pushed Scott forward.  
  
  
  
Xavier wandered aimlessly inside the mansion. He used to wonder why the hell did he build something this big at the first place while he knew he would not be able to cover all crannies and nook of it in one day, let alone one month. Now the thought returned with a vengeance. And did the mansion suddenly grow quiet?  
  
In a far room he heard someone cursed loudly. Continuously.   
  
"At last! A sign of life!" Xavier rushed toward the room and was furthermore elated when he saw it was Logan bending over an open fridge.  
  
"Logan! Am I glad to see you!"   
  
Logan heard him and turned around with a wary look in his narrowed eyes. "I hope your glad doesn't go far than being friendly," he said in a low threatening voice.  
  
Xavier's eyebrows rose in bewilderment. "It IS more!" he said, resulting in Logan's eyes further narrowed. There was a low growl and Xavier added - without realising that he'd be skewered if he did not - "I'm like your father!"  
  
Logan's eyes suddenly relaxed and the crease between his brows ceased. He grabbed a bottle of orange juice and a loaf of bread with a jar of peanut butter and walked away in a huff.   
  
Further bewilderment was evident in Xavier's face as he watched the short, muscular, hot-headed man walked away. "Well, if I said I was his mother he'd be cross…"  
  
  
It was too much for Logan's heterosexual mind.  
  
He knew that he belonged to what the society called as freaks. He recognised the fact and even accepted it. But there is always another side, a darker side that lurks not hidden but flagrantly displayed by those who are supposed to be normal.   
  
He thought that was the end of it, and Logan paid no attention to them, knowing that they'd be back for more if stirred. Leaving them be is the best solution. One of those things he could not fight out of.  
  
But here… in the X-Men itself… it's preposterous (now where did that word come from?)! Impossible! And of all people Warren was the one who's gay - or suspected as a gay! Pity, Logan thought as he passed Bobby's door, such a great-looking man, such a waste.   
  
When the women first told Logan he hoped it was Scott but no such luck. And he hated Scott even more and for once in Logan's life he wished that someone was gay.  
  
He remembered that he had left the butter knife in Bobby's desk last night and went inside with the juice and the peanut butter and the bread.  
  
  
"You still have time to identify something!!!?"  
  
"Hey, at least I don't gag and hurl like someone I know," Bobby said as he equipped the sling. It was a Magic Missile Slinger, capable of casting out magic missile as long as there are bullets in it.   
  
"Shut up," Scott said, feeling himself turn green as he ran for cover to a far end of the area where the road sort of narrowed. "I'm perfectly fine," he added before he spat out blackish goo. Again.  
  
"I don't think Mr Summers is himself right now," Ray said as he watched in horror the five vampires cornered him. "Let's help him!"  
  
"On the contrary," Hank said, perfectly relaxed, holding a struggling Ray firmly.   
  
It was three seconds or so, but in their awe it seemed to have lasted an eternity. Scott calmly - or seemed to be calm; his face still looked quite green - stood there with five vampires cornering him, a staff in his hand and his other hand outstretched to the heavens. Suddenly there was a bright light that came down from the previously darkened sky, and for one moment Scott seemed invulnerable, god-like.  
  
"I banish you, sons of darkness, to the limbo where you came from," Scott said. With that he held out both hands, his staff stood by itself for one short moment, and a blinding burst of light exploded from his outstretched hands. The three shielded their eyes.  
  
A long chorus of unearthly wails and cries followed, then the next thing they saw was Scott standing alone at the corner. He smiled at them once.  
  
"Yayyy!!" The rest cheered. "Good going, Scott!"  
  
Scott felt dizzy, maybe from the excitement. "Think… I'm… getting… quite… good…"  
  
He never finished those words. Dizziness came over him like a crashing wave and the last thing he saw was the stars twinkling in the sky above.  


  


_Will Scott really die this time? Will the others leave him? Will Xavier become the mother of all mutants? _


	7. Gone

**7.**  
  


It was Jubilee's idea to seek out the source of the problem first - Warren's cellphone. "It could be nothing at all," she reasoned as they marched to Warren's bedroom. "Maybe some bookseller or a professor who nicknamed everyone for the sake of memory."

"I hope you're right," Jean said, stealing a glance at Betsy who was five or six steps away in front of them. "I've never seen her look so - wraithlike."

"If you ask me she looks more like walking to the gallows."

  
  


"Well, what do you know. We can't find his cellphone here."

"Where else could it be?" Emma said, looking at the room. "Do you guys want to put everything back to its place?"

"Do we?" Jubilee twisted a lock of hair on her fingertips.

"Not _me_." Betsy tiredly replied.

"Ditto." Jean was already at the door.

"Same here," Emma said as she quickly marched out of the room.

When they were outside Betsy suddenly cocked her head slightly. "Did you hear that?"

"What?" Jean turned about.

"Yeah… it's that Limp Bizkit tune. How does it go? Na… na na…?"

Betsy narrowed her eyes. "That's Linkin Park's 'In the End', stupid."

Jubilee, hated to be patronized, narrowed her eyes too. "I know what I hear, and it's Limp Bizkit's tune!"

"How could you know? All you listen to all day was 'I'm a uh uh slaaaaaaave for youuuu' and all that crap."

"Pink freak!" Jubilee screamed, at a loss for words.

"Well look who's saying to who, little girl with cup size 20-A!"

Jubilee's face was red by now. "I beg your pardon!"

"Both of you should be begging each other mercy if you don't stop now!" Emma said. "Let's look for the cellphone instead of telling all of us here your bra size. Or sizes," Emma added as she noted how full was Betsy's upper shirt was. In fact, fuller than hers. _I bet she's using WonderBra_.

The protagonists stared at each other in a deadly way before they started to look for the source of the tone.

"I think it's coming from the second floor," Jean said. Already she was halfway up on the stairs. "It's from one of the rooms."

Betsy crinkled her nose in distaste. "I think Hank and Bobby have gone too far this time. It's coming from their room." Just then the ringing stopped.

Jubilee walked toward the door. "You're right," she said, peeking inside the room. There's Warren's cellphone on the bed."

The rest walked in and stared at the cellphone. "I'd wonder how did it get here, but maybe Hank today is in a very perverse mood for jokes. Whatever his reasons would be, I won't forgive them," Betsy said as she reached for the cellphone.

"Hey," Jubilee said as she entered the room, "who left these here?" There were loaves of bread and orange juice lying on the floor.

  
  


"I… can't!"

"Try again!"

Logan tried with all his might. "Argh! I still can't!"

Scott looked at him, smiling. "Mutant powers are useless in this place. Don't you notice it by now?"

Logan stared at him helplessly, then tried again. Ray began to giggle. "Why are you giggling, Ray?" he asked sternly.

Ray shook his head. "Nothing. It's only that you look like someone with a bad case of constipation."

A few bumps and cuts and bruises later, Logan gave up trying. Ray was only half alive by then, Logan going into berserker's mode was softened for the fact that mutant powers were muted here. But the result was still terrifyingly real as Ray had personally experienced.

"You shouldn't have slogged him that bad," Bobby chastised him as they rested.

"That boy should have known his limits," Logan growled, still disturbed by his claw-less hands.

"So you really did have constipation in the past," Scott muttered as he lay on the forest floor.

"That's none of your business," Logan said.

"Then what about the day I noticed your pants got very, very yellow on one particular spot and you've just walked out of the toilet?"

"Scott," Ray muttered out, instinctively touching his bruises. "You don't want to do anything of that sort. Trust me."

"Or the day you suddenly walked out of a meeting with one hand in your butt?"

Logan growled.

"Or was it the day that you tried to look for a toilet but all were full so you decided to go to the woods and returned half an hour later?"

Piercing blue eyes were on Scott, but Scott only smiled happily.

"I should have known; toughness takes its toll on you after all. I thought you were invulnerable. Yet somehow you get my old woman. Wonder what will she think if I were to tell her these?"

Logan rose and things would have turned ugly between these silent rivals but Scott suddenly cast Entangle on the spot where Logan was sitting, which in turn affected the rest. "Dammit! Scott! What are you doing?!"

"Nothing. Just a few test of my newfound powers." Scott stood up, not steadily though, but he leaned on his staff and that steadied him somewhat. "Eating that rat gave me disease, and Bobby was good casting Cure Disease on me, but I can still feel traces of it" - Scott tapped his head - "in here. In fact, I can cast this now."

Muttering a few strange words he blew across his palm. Suddenly a few feet from where the three entangled men were sitting the earth split open. A blue-red smoke puffed out, followed by a twisting column of light. Slowly the light became solid, and out of it something that looked like human torso was carved out.

Bobby suddenly became hysterical. "Oh shit! OH SHIT! SCOTT WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? STOP IT, MAN!"

"Bobby," Logan flatly said, "mind telling us what is going on?"

Observing the panicked look in Bobby's face Scott smiled. "I'll tell you. That's Animate Dead spell. I've just turned it to you while I take this chance to run to the big X. I tire of waiting, guys, and I want to get out very quick. I'm not like you geeks who wanted to stay here and fight monsters and whatnots and getting puny experiences for that."

"Animate what?" Logan asked as if he had become deaf all of a sudden.

Instead of answering Bobby pointed to the spot where the light had been. Then Logan nodded in awe. "Oh. OK." Logan looked uncertainly around. "Now what do we do?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to think of it," Scott said as he turned and left. "When you're all dead, that is." He let out a cruel laughter and disappeared beyond the 'rest area' border.

The three watched helplessly as the undead creature with its grinning skull and a menacing-looking axe in its bony fingers stalked toward them.

"Bobby, do something!" Ray shouted. But Bobby seemed not to listen to him. "BOBBY!"

Logan was meanwhile staring at the creature as it got closer and closer. Ray saw his lips moved but he could not hear what he said. Next Logan turned to him and his lips moved again.

"What did you say? I can't hear you!" Ray said, pointing to his ears. Only then realization hit him in the stomach, and it was not pretty.

In his exit Scott managed to cast Silence unto them. _Damn! Think, Ray, think!_

Logan was the nearest to the undead and of course he was the one who was hit first. He began blindly hewing at the undead with an axe.

Suddenly the sound of axe hitting onto hard bones slammed into his ears. This new development was so unexpected that Ray found his ears actually hurt for a moment. Trying to recover from the shock Ray turned to see Bobby was fumbling with his spellbook.

"Did you cast Vocalise?" Ray asked, becoming more efficient with the spell names. Bobby nodded, still perusing through the spellbook..

"What had just happened?" Bobby asked him.

"I don't know. But we better help Logan first. He's taking too much damage; his swings gets weaker," Ray noted.

"Give me enough time to cast this Magic Missile and we'll be over it soon," Bobby grinned.

  
  


They rested for ten hours, Logan's injuries too serious to be healed with spells. "I thought I never feel these again," he remarked as he drifted off to sleep earlier on. "It's kind of … delightful."

Now as they sat down waiting for Logan to recover Bobby and Ray went through what had happened just now and tried to make sense of it all.

"That rat. That damned rat. It has to be, Ray."

"I don't know. How can eating a rat turns you into a bad character?"

"That can happen," Bobby said as he poked at the fire. "You see, one who has good alignment and did something as opposed to his/her alignment will greatly affect his own alignment." He stared at the darkness beyond the rest area. "But I never knew it could be this bad."

"And Hank. Where did he go while all of this happen?"

Bobby shifted himself so that he was leaning against the crook of a tree massive root. "I don't know. At first I think I am in total control of this game, but clearly that is not the case anymore."

"We have to get out of here, Bobby," Ray said, desperation a jagged edge in his voice. "The longer we are trapped in here, the higher the chance we are getting killed."

"There's always Resurrect spell."

"No. You don't understand." Here Ray lowered his voice. "I think whoever - or whatever, that created this… simulator, means to get us killed. ALL of us."

Bobby shivered inside, Ray's word had the ring of truth in it. "Nonsense," he instead said. "It's just a game."

"Then why Scott didn't come back and say 'Gotcha!' ?" Ray angrily whispered. "Why can't we get out anytime we wanted to? Why can't we willed ourselves to get out and when we did, nothing seemed to happen?"

"SHUT UP!"

At that moment Ray was not looking at Bobby, but something that resembled Bobby with unseeing white eyes and sulphurous cavern as his mouth. His hair was a spray of cold flames of the darkest blue, and his fingers, under the firelight, suddenly elongated to terrifying lengths.

For that one moment Ray was fear-stricken, frozen to the ground where he sat, helpless.

Then the look - or vision, was it? Ray wondered later, because it all was too quick to recall whether the firelight had caused it all or the toll of simply being here had begun to manifest in hallucinations - faded, extinguished from Bobby's face, and Bobby was Bobby again with blue eyes and blond hair.

But Bobby seemed to have sensed it, too, because he quickly looked away from Ray's frightened yet questioning eyes. "Shut up, Ray," he weakly said later on.

They did not speak to each other for the rest of the night.

_What is going on? When will the girls come in? And does Jubilee really have size 20-A cup?_


	8. Human Nature

8.  
  


"HELP! HELP!"

She ran headlong toward the nearest fork of road with five orcs behind her, laughing and shouting at her.

"Somebody HELP ME!"

The orcs were gaining both speed and distance, and she could hear their foul breaths behind her. "No!!!"

The orcs continued to laugh. One of them stopped and took out a bow and shot at her.

The arrow flew harmlessly over her head, which only served to heighten her hysteria and further excite the orcs.

A rustle from the both sides of the road stopped the orcs dead in their tracks. Three men stepped out of the left, two women on the right. The scared-looking woman they had just chased now nonchalantly stopped and turned toward them.

"Well boys," she said a bit breathlessly, "it was fun while it lasted." Taking out a dagger hidden under her robe she joined the women. "Now I'll get even with you all. And then some."

The orcs cried aloud, this time in fear.

  


"You'd make a very good actress were you to born in another life," Jean commented as they walked in groups of three, the men in front of the women.

"I like acting," Jubilee said, twirling her dagger in the air and caught it with one gloved hand: Emma gasped in fear and excitement. "Besides, that wasn't hard. Only next time a quicker appearance would be better. Did you see that damned orc tried to turn me into a porcupine?"

"Darling, he only shot you once." It was Ray.

Jubilee took a pebble and threw it at him; it hit him squarely at the head. Jean raised an eyebrow. "You're becoming very good with targets."

"Hey, I'm a thief, remember?" she said proudly.

"I don't think it's something to be proud of," Emma said, who kept on stumbling over her robe. "Ach! I hate this robe! How can someone stand this?"

"Would you prefer to wear nothing than stumbling over some stupid robe, Emma?" Bobby asked from in front.

"I don't care! Just release me from this hell."

It was probably half an hour later when they stopped for a break. "Where are we going?" Jean asked as they started off again.

"I don't know. But Bobby seemed to be sure that we should be going toward the big X."

Jean stared at Logan in disbelief. "Uh-huh. Then what will we do when we get there?"

"Maybe we'll find a way out of this," Jubilee said.

"But can't we just get out of here?"

"We can't, that's the problem," Logan said. "If we could would we have been here when you girls entered?"

"Maybe you boys enjoyed it too much to go away," Emma remarked. Suddenly she stopped. "Everybody stop. I think I lost my dice."

"Your WHAT?" they all chorused.

"How could you lose it? That's… that's like, your LIFE around here!" Bobby said.

Jubilee patted his shoulders. "Bobby, it's just a dice - "

"It's not JUST a DICE!" he roared which made Jubilee immediately back away from him. "It's your LIFELINE! Your damned lifeline! How do you suppose you are to move without a DICE!?"

The rest was too shocked to say anything. Emma, for the first time ever, was on the verge of crying. Her shoulders were shaking uncontrollably. "I'm sorry, Bobby," she muttered.

"What, you think saying sorry brings back the dice?! Why can't you be more careful!? Why can't ANY of you?!"

"Cool it, man. She only lost her dice, no big deal," Ray said, staring at him in a worried way.

Bobby raised his hands upwards in contempt and with a scornful grunt he threw his dice onto the ground and walked on, leaving the rest behind.

"What crawled up his ass last night?" Logan asked, staring at Bobby who was far beyond them.

"Maybe Rosie O'Donnell." Jubilee patted Emma's shoulder who was by now crying. "Hey, Ms. Frost. Cool it. You'd bleach the green away from the robe if you don't stop the plumbing."  
  


Charles Xavier found that he was utterly alone.

Too lazy to use his telepathy he instead called every room in the mansion - which proved more tiring than telepathy, he had to confess later. Which also made him wonder: how could Jubilee stand beside a telephone and kept on punching numbers and yakking without end.

The last room number was tried, and there was nobody. Did he give a leave today? No, it was not in his organizer; nothing of that sort was written in his personal diary, either. Maybe they went to a field trip. But they should have some sort of letter for that. Or was it his birthday and they planned a surprise party?

Blushing temporarily for that vain thought he shook his head a few times and programmed his wheelchair to go to the bathroom.

  


"This is what we've went through for?"

"I thought we would at least find a town!"

"Where is the princess?"

"I want to go home."

"I wanna pee!"

"SHUT UP!" Bobby shouted above the rest. He'd been doing that excellently these times, and he did not know why the others did not go against him. Like he cared why. "I don't know, okay! But we're finally here, so let's start looking for anything that will lead us out of here."

"What do you expect to find in a ruined city like this?" Ray asked, looking around.

"Something. Anything."

"I guess he can't be more specific than that," Jubilee said and went away before Bobby's wrath got the better of him.

As the rest spread out, Bobby found that he was also quite surprised. He had high hopes, but now it seemed that nothing was in his expectation. It was two days ago that they came across clues of settlements that seemed to have been deserted for some reason. That did much to raise their spirits.

And now… this. A ruin. A ruin of a city, it seemed, from the breadth of it. He could see stone walls - what's the left of it - running for miles and miles beyond before making a comeback at the other far side of the ruin. Earlier on they came across the remains of a great archway that must have served as the city's main gate.

"What happened here?" Ray suddenly asked him. Bobby looked around.

"Maybe a war," he replied. "But that's not a sure thing, either. This looks too widespread to be some sort of a war."

"Doesn't war leave a mess like this?" Ray asked.

"Not this one it doesn't. Look," Ray pointed to his far right where they both could see Emma and Logan tried to pry some heavy beam off some structure to look for clues. "Soldiers of war don't get this destructive; they don't destroy everything in sight. They destroy enemies, not structures. Well, not basically. And how do you suppose you can at least stay alive if you wipe out the whole population of the city you wanted to conquer?"

"Makes sense," Jean said, appearing in front of them. "You can't just come in and kill and destroy everything in sight and then leave. You have got to at least eat."

"This place looks like it's been under siege for quite a while," Ray said.

"But at some places fire is still burning," Logan said, approaching them from the right with Emma. "It could have been quite a while though; some fires can start all by itself after a while."

"We've found this," Emma said, giving Bobby a small sack. Bobby took it and opened it. His eyes widened in disbelief as Emma went on. "Found it underneath the burnt beam. We cannot think of how could it get there."

"What is it?" Jubilee asked, wiping her sooty face with the back of her hand.

Bobby took it out of the sack. It was a lump of dough, the kind that a baker would use to bake a bread. It was still soft and moist.

  


"None of this make any sense," Logan remarked as they sat around the fire later that night.

Ray threw in a stick into the fire and watched as the red fireflies form, float upward and disappear. "Pretty much. So what do we do now?" he asked, looking around.

"I suppose there is no harm in waiting. Is there?" Emma said, turning to Bobby.

Bobby stared at her thoughtfully. "I guess not," he said finally. "But don't let your guards down. Anything can happen. And we still can't figure out the dough."

"A large battalion couldn't have done such a magnitude of destruction in minutes it seemed," Jean said. "I swear that the dough still bore fingerprints of whoever rolled it before… before whatever cataclysm happened here."

"Whatever that was, it sure happened quick. And furious." Logan stared at the ruined walls that surrounded them which functioned as a border. "Whatever that was, it sure wasted no time in destroying the whole city."

They slept early that night. Morning came without much incident and they probed the ruins further, to nothing.

"This is like some kind of a very, very lame game," Ray remarked as they rested for the morning. "Are we bound to stuck here forever?"

"Don't say that!" Emma said. "I hate that word; forever. In fact I hate everything about this… this game we're playing." She pointed at Bobby. "This is all your fault! You shouldn't have bought this game!"

"Hey, I didn't actually remember inviting any of you," Bobby retorted without looking at her.

"Oh…" Emma stared at him angrily, then she began to shake all over. Jubilee noted this and shook her head. "Look what you've done," she said as she walked over to Emma. "You made her cry."

The others raised their eyebrows. "I wish I had a camera," Logan said.

Suddenly a deafening roar came from somewhere beneath them made all of them stood up in attention. "What was that?" Emma asked, wiping her eyes and gripping her Polant Staff. It glowed briefly.

"I think it's from below us." Logan began to kneel and stare at the ground.

"What are you doing?" Jubilee asked.

"I'm a ranger, remember?"

Bobby pursed his lips. "Now that's new. A berserker ranger."

"Okay already! You're making me lose concentration!"

They all stood around Logan who put his ears on the ground and listened. The memory of the roar was not far from their minds, and they stood at guard, expecting anything to pop out from behind the ruined walls.

At last Logan rose. "Nothing."

Disbelief was on their faces. "Nothing?" Emma asked. "What kind of a ranger are you?"

"Your chatters made me lose concentration! Plus I've just acquired this, okay! Now let's get off this place," he said, angrily as he walked off.

"Where are you going?" Bobby asked as Logan walked past him.

Logan stopped in his tracks. He pointed to the west. "I think there's a path from here to the edge of the city where the walls and the moat meets."

"What exactly do you have in mind?" Ray asked.

"Well, if whatever that hollered to us just now lived under us, then we need to get under." Logan rolled his eyes. "Clear enough for you? Or does anyone need a spank at the head?"

"I don't mind you do that on my ass," Emma said with a small voice but already pulling up her robe and shoving her wonderfully shaped ass to Logan. "Not so hard."

Jean grabbed hold of Emma's wrist and pulled her behind her before the hungry-eyed men with eagerly outstretched hands could even get their hands on Emma's ass. "What's the matter with you!?" Jean asked.

"I think I need a spank," Emma said, her cheeks flushing red.

_Will Emma be spanked? Will they find whatever that hollered just now? Will the professor find out? Wait up, guys..._


End file.
